The Mercedes’ pit wall was again under a scanner when they decided not to pit Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas under the safety car while its rivals Ferrari and Red Bull Racing did so.
The incident with Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson on Lap 31 called for the first safety car period when Sebastian Vettel was leading from Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen. Ferrari made the call to pit Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen.
It was same with Red Bull as they called in Verstappen, while it was unfortunate timing for Daniel Ricciardo as he had just stopped few laps ago to change tyres. Mercedes though chose track position with Bottas and Hamilton staying on medium tyres.
The Finn had stopped on Lap 21 for his first change, while Hamilton did it on Lap 26 – so the latter’s tyres were in a better shape. In addition, the German outfit didn’t have an extra set of new soft tyres to put on unlike Ferrari and Red Bull.
It was always going to be tough for the Mercedes drivers. A second safety car for the collision between Haas’ Romain Grosjean and Renault’s Carlos Sainz helped them with few more laps to kill but it wasn’t to be.
After few laps of trying, Vettel eventually found a way past Bottas to take the lead and win the race. The Finn dropped back to fourth after he was picked on by Hamilton and Raikkonen – he nearly lost it to Ricciardo but held on eventually.
On the other hand, since Hamilton was on a slightly fresher tyres, he was able to fend off Raikkonen and secure second. Post race, both the Mercedes drivers still defended the team’s strategy call as they felt it was the only way to try and win.
“Afterwards it is quite easy to say yes, should I have pitted at least to keep the position, but [we] took a risk to be first and ended up fourth, so just like, I think five laps too much [in the end],” said Bottas.
“I felt there was definitely the possibility to go to the end, obviously in practice I didn’t do any longruns with the medium [tyres], but from our calculations, it should have been okay – but it wasn’t [which happens].”
Hamilton added: “I can’t speak for Valtteri, I guess he was obviously in the lead and they believed that perhaps he would be able to hold on. For me, the guys pitted in front of me, that was an opportunity for me to get up into third. I think it was the right decision.
“If I’d followed them in I would have come out behind them, we’d have equal tyres and I would have struggle to get by them and most certainly wouldn’t have been second. These guys would have pulled away.
“So, I think it was 100 per cent the right decision, particularly on my car. I don’t know how many laps Valtteri had had – but most likely it was the right decision for him too – but it was very, very hard with our tyres, fighting against people with brand-new tyres for sure.
“And in a perfect world, I would have had new tyres – but it wasn’t that kind of day for me.” Mercedes have been caught out with strategy for few races now, especially the last race in Austria where James Vowles had to apologise on world feed.
Vettel also thought it was a fair call from Mercedes as it gave them track position and the Ferrari drivers had to fight out to take those back. If the tyres had held on, it would have given Bottas the victory.
“Obviously, we are the first car, us deciding to pit, obviously they stayed out,” he started. “I think if we stay out, they pit. So he had a free pit stop and I lost a position to him but after the re-start I knew we have our chance, with fresher tyres.
“Then there was another safety car and then you’re losing laps but it was crucial to make the move early on. He was pushing very hard and did a good job and it was difficult to get past in the beginning because his tyres were still fine and he was in free air.
“But I was able to surprise him and then I could control the last couple of laps, turn things down and bring the car home.”
